And the hammer drops. Brock Osweiler has bolted for the Houston Texans, as reported by Mile High Sports Radio’s own Press Box Insider earlier this afternoon.

Rand Getlin confirmed the report an hour later.

As reported earlier this morning, Colin Kaepernick looks to be the Broncos’ Plan B, and Adam Schefter reiterated what Mile High Sports Radio’s Benjamin Allbright reported a month ago, saying that Robert Griffin III is in the mix too.

After spending three full seasons on the bench behind Peyton Manning, Brock finally got an opportunity to start last year, going 5-2 in seven games. He completed 61.8 percent of his passes for 1,967 yards, 10 touchdowns and six interceptions.

Osweiler was pulled in the second half of the Week 17 game against the Chargers for Manning, who would go on to win the Super Bowl as the Broncos’ starter.

John Elway had reportedly made a push to re-sign Osweiler last night and into this morning, but it wasn’t enough. The Texans apparently gave him a blank check.

At $18 million a year (on average), Osweiler is now tied with Tony Romo as the 14th highest-paid quarterback in the NFL, according to Spotrac. That’s a number Elway wasn’t willing to match, and apparently, Osweiler wasn’t too keen on coming back anyway.

Denver is officially on the lookout for a new quarterback.